Harrogate Town AFC

Watch the Gaffer's pre-Bristol Rovers interview here... 



On analysing and moving on from last weekend's defeat…

It's been a really constructive week in training. We went through the video of last week and what went wrong and how moving forward we can move forward positively and not find ourselves in that situation again.
I think there's parts of our performance, obviously, that we could have done better at but we're a work in progress and we'll continue to work hard.

Obviously it was pretty painstaking effort going through all the video. Stopping and starting it we realised that after half time, we dropped too deep within our box a couple of times and it's cost us goals.

We didn't stop crosses and ultimately the crux of it was defending properly when the balls out wide and making sure that we're organizing ourselves and those around us as a defensive unit. Also, we've got to keep the ball better.

That's been a bit of a pride and joy in recent years since going full time, being able to pass the ball well. We looked at that after and I think it's alarmed some players to realise that we did just thump it forward (against Hartlepool) and when it's on to play, we should.

On whether there's frustration from recent performances…

Well we're not too frustrated because of where we are in the league. We're in a superb place and people say the hardest part in football is creating and scoring goals, well we're achieving that on a regular basis. As a defensive unit though, including everybody, we have to do better. But like I've already said, when the ball is in the box we have to grow up and meet that challenge.

On whether there's pressure on Bristol Rovers to get straight back to League One…

I think they have alluded to it before in interviews that they probably put pressure on themselves because they are huge at this level, like Bolton last year and so there probably is more outside pressure and inward pressure at that club than ours. But we don't want to be the club that triggers a turn in momentum for them, they've got some very good players, huge pedigree and experience so it's going to be a tough game.

On James Belshaw's return to Harrogate…

He played a massive role for us and it will be good to see him again and I hope our fans give him a really good and deserving reception when he goes to the kop or the other end, which I'm sure he'll get. He made a massive contribution over a number of years and we're really thankful for that.

On facing new opposition and playing at home…

I think they're all new experiences this year as well, you know, with the crowds returning, but so far, so good at home you know, we've had a great turnout ourselves. You look at the numbers coming through the gates now, it's really caught fire with the Harrogate public.

They're all good experiences like it was against Scunthorpe during our last Saturday home game. That was excellent at home game and it was brilliant and hopefully we can start on fire like we did that day.

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